Logistics distribution center location using multi-swarm cooperative particle swarm optimizer

This study presented a new approach to solve logistics distribution center location problem. Multi-swarm Cooperative Particle Swarm Optimizer (MCPSO) (Niu et al., 2007) is adopted to selects a certain number of locations as distribution centers in a logistics system so as to minimize the total cost of the whole logistics networks. A hybrid parallel encoding method is used and thus logistics distribution center lacation problem is mapped to the process of is birds (particles) foraging. By competition and collaboration of the individuals in MCPSO the optimal lacation solution is obtained. The experimental result demonstrated that the MCPSO achieves rapid convergence rate and better solutions compared with standard PSO. © 2013 Asian Network for Scientific Information.